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Settlements in 4 Taconic wrong-way crash lawsuits

The Associated Press, AP
6:18 a.m. EDT July 31, 2014

FILE - In this July 26, 2009, file photo, New York State troopers and Hawthorne firefighters work at the scene of a fatal accident in which eight people were killed on the Taconic Parkway in Hawthorne, N.Y. On Wednesday, July 30, 2014, attorney Kevin Grennan announced that settlements were reached in the four lawsuits brought against the estate of the vehicle?s driver, Diane Schuler, and against her brother, who owned the minivan she was driving. An autopsy found that Schuler, who died in the crash, was drunk and stoned when she drove her minivan the wrong way on the parkway and collided with an SUV carrying three men, who were killed. (AP Photo/The Journal News, Frank Becerra Jr, File) NYC METRO OUT, TV OUT, MAGS OUT, NO SALES(Photo: Frank Becerra Jr, AP)

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — Settlements have been reached in four lawsuits stemming from a wrong-way minivan crash that killed eight people on the Taconic State Parkway, a lawyer said.

The terms of the settlements are confidential, said attorney Kevin Grennan, who represented one of the victims and the only survivor.

The lawsuits were brought against the estate of Diane Schuler and against her brother, who owned the minivan she was driving. Schuler was going the wrong way on the parkway in 2009 when she hit a sport utility vehicle carrying three men.

The men were killed, along with Schuler, her daughter, who was 2, and her three nieces, ages 5, 7 and 8. The lone survivor was Schuler's son, who was 5.

Schuler was driving the red minivan home from a weekend camping trip upstate on July 26, 2009, when she inexplicably drove south in the northbound lanes for nearly 2 miles of the parkway before colliding head-on with the SUV in Westchester County, police said.

An autopsy found Schuler, who drove past Do Not Enter signs, was intoxicated and had been smoking marijuana.

The lawsuits were brought by Schuler's surviving son and by the estates of her daughter and the men.

Michael Bastardi Jr., whose father and brother were killed along with a family friend, said Wednesday that the lawsuits produced no new information about the wrong-way crash.

Schuler's husband said after the crash that the parkway's warning signs were insufficient and that the "appropriate lanes of travel" weren't properly marked. He insisted before her autopsy that she must have been suffering from a medical condition that would explain her actions.